This trip was ~1,900 miles total and 1-week of luggage/travel for 3 adults and one teen. We went from So Cal to the Bay area in a single day. Spent the weekend in Marin county visiting one of our adult children and exploring and then headed to Tahoe to see another adult child and so our two that are still at home could go snowboarding.
On Monday had snow, slick roads and R-2 chain controls on I-80 to and around Truckee. The snow continued with more R-2 conditions on Tuesday. I had the required chains, I did not need to use them. Chain controls stopped us (and everybody), confirmed the truck was in 4WD, looked at the Toyo’s and gave a thumbs up to proceed as is. The GX handled the conditions exceptionally well.
Our return to SoCal was a ~550 mile return run yesterday.
The GX took all of our luggage and was great covering the freeway ground, the 2 lanes, the snow and hitting the trails in NV. This trip reinforced the GX is very capable of doing what I had in mind - covering hundreds of miles of freeway/2-lane to get to where we want go when we want to go and in very good comfort. Then, once there be able to handle the weather and get to places off pavement that are interesting or in the summer/fall where the fishing is. Bonus points for superb passing power @ +6,000ft when necessary.
I’m so happy I cancelled the Bronco Wildtrak I had on order. While it was (and is) insanely cool & capable it could not have handled the 4 of us or our gear/bags without a roof or hitch carrier and frankly it would have sucked to drive on 500-mile days.
We have done the same trip in nicer weather in our RX350h. The RX is comfortable, similar seating space in a little bit narrower package. It is even quite similar in overall length to the GX. But, the RX is not as capable in the snow and the rear storage is significantly smaller so it does not handle a week’s worth of luggage + stuff for 4 people. It does, however, get exactly twice the gas mileage (34 MPG) of the GX (17 MPG).
On this trip I was able to fit all of our bags, a cooler a sled, our winter gear and my recovery gear (sans the traction boards) and my Milwaukee air compressor in the GX. We rent snow boards and boots our packing didn’t include those items. Since my son has traction boards I elected to leave those behind and take the sled instead for my teen.
Again, I’m very pleased with the GX. I find the RX/GX combo to really work well for our family’s needs.
The RX is generally our go to for local use and road trips for 2 or 3 of us and that don’t involve wandering in rough terrain (or fishing holes) or really challenging conditions. It’s comfy, cheap to run and the AWD works well in normal conditions. With the GX we have very similar overall comfort, much more usable luggage room and the ability handle much more challenging conditions.
I also have to share my adult son who has offloaded with me many times in his Taco was very impressed with the GX.